Hue Off The Beaten Path

1 more image

This is usually the first stop for the open tour buses going from Hue to Danang. The setting is really nice as the mountains surround the area . The lagoon is fairly nice and there is a long beachfront along the South China Sea.

Several places in Hue are historical sites and must be preserved. Sometimes these belong to the public, and the caretaker lives on the premise. Sometimes these belong to locals; enterprising owners may decide to erect a cafe or restaurant around it. We found these in a neighborhood just outside the wall of the Citadel. There's a cafe next to it.

Bronze drums with stylized reliefs of people and animals on top are among the earliest known Vietnamese archaeological artifacts. They appropriately are the country's heraldic symbol. Strangely, the decorative motif is similar to that of objects found from Myanmar to Indonesia, suggesting cultural exchange or even a common ancestral root.

At Thien Mu Pagoda, a battered green sedan sits in a garage. This may seem strange to those who don't know its shocking history. In the 1960s, Vietnamese Buddhists contended that they were persecuted by the regime of then-president Ngo Dinh Diem, who was a Catholic. In protest, on June 13, 1963, the monk Thich Quang Duc took this car to a busy intersection in Saigon. There, he set himself on fire while remaining seated in a lotus position. The event understandably caused an uproar in Vietnam.

The pass lying on Highway 1 on the border between Thua Thien - Hue and Da Nang provinces. Whenever one goes through Hai Van Pass, two feelings are experienced: amazement at passing through the clouds and fear when seeing the dangerous bends of the road.

A 21 km-long road over Hai Van Pass, winds back and forth to a height of 435 metres above sea level. With sudden curves and blind corners, Hai Van Pass is likened to challenging drivers' skills. Its name means "Pass of the Ocean Clouds," since the peak of the mountain is in the clouds while its foot is close to the sea. From the top of Hai Van Pass, one can admire Lang Co Beach to the north and Danang to the south.

The most famous high school in Vietnam. They've got a much better website than mine.

This is on the river bank, across from the Quoc Hoc High School. Since the old days, it has been used as an assembly area for outdoor performance, plays, concerts, etc.